Two More Stages:
The Interiors and Human Figures

The computer model now includes the British castle with its European-style buildings,
the African workers' village at the south end of the island with its traditional
thatched-roof dwellings, and the complicated terrain of the island itself with
small hills at each end and a dip, or valley, in between.
The next stage is to fill the castle's interior spaces
with period furnishings, slave trading goods,
cargo, and 18th century artifacts of various types.
We have already begun work on this stage, but
finishing it will require hundreds more man-hours of
work.

The last stage in the project will be to create animated
human figures representing the people who inhabited
the castle -- the British slave traders and their
African workers; the slave merchants who came to the
castle with captives and goods to sell; a visiting
slave ship captain and his crew; the local African
king who came to the castle once a year to collect
his rent; and the enslaved men, women and children
imprisoned in Bunce Island's open-air "slave yards."
We have contacted human figure animators who can do this highly technical work, including
a computer consulting firm in Sierra Leone, called
"SBTS Group." But this final stage is very
labor-intensive, and we will not be able to complete
it without more donor contributions. If we can finish this project, viewers will be able
to click their way into every building on Bunce
Island and see every aspect of the slave trade as it
went on there 200 years ago.

Yale Center for British Art

Drawing of slaves in Sierra Leone, 1805

SBTS Group

Computer-generated figure based on the 1805 drawing

We will create a
unique educational resource that will be available
online and in libraries and used in books,
documentary films, and museum exhibits. Our goal is
to present the Atlantic slave trade in an almost
photo-realistic way, so that modern viewers will be
able to grasp its impact and meaning as never before.

But we need your help.
Virtual archaeology is costly and detailed work.If you would like to help us finish the Bunce Island
Virtual Archaeology Project, please see the following
section: